Freedman's company purchased the roughly 1-acre site in March for about $1.53 million. The property had previously been home to a Rite Aid store.

Freedman, whose offices are based in Springdale, said he was attracted to the location by its easy access to service-based retailers, restaurants and mass transportation.

"This is not the downtown, but this is actually a better location," he said, noting it is next to the Springdale Shopping Center -- also owned by Freedman's company -- and a short walk from the train station.

Plans call for 47 studio, 32 one-bedroom and 9 two-bedroom units. A total of 17 percent of the units will be set aside as affordable housing, exceeding the city's 10 percent requirement.

A long-established Stamford real estate firm, Garden Homes Management has specialized in affordable housing developments across the tri-state region. A few years ago, Freedman made a calculated bet on the city's downtown, based on the belief there was an untapped market for smaller and less-expensive housing. "Relatively speaking, there's no new, small, affordable housing in downtown Stamford, or Stamford, for that matter," he said. "The product just doesn't exist."

Beginning in 2009, his company developed three apartment complexes consisting of mainly studio dwellings. Ranging between 400 to 500 square feet in size, the units start at roughly $1,000 a month. By comparison, a 580-square-foot studio at LockWorks, a complex in the South End's Harbor Point development, rents for $1,865 a month.

Demand has been even stronger than Freedman expected. The first two projects, a 55-unit building at 111 Prospect St. and a 50-unit building at 25 Third St., took five months to rent. The third, an 89-unit building that opened this year at 800 Summer St., rented in just three months.

Freedman said his properties lack the frills typically offered by the crop of new luxury downtown and South End apartments. While he stressed his units had nice kitchens, and exercise and other common rooms, there are no concierges, washer-dryers inside each unit, or swimming pools. "It's not built to the same market," he said.

If approved, Freedman's Springdale proposal would be the first residential development to utilize the zoning regulations created in 2009 under the neighborhood's Village Commercial District. The designation was designed to spur pedestrian-oriented "Main Street" development with changes such as smaller setbacks, as well as increased allowable building heights to accommodate multi-family housing.

Norman Cole, the city's land-use bureau chief, cited only two redevelopment projects approved under the Springdale Village Commercial District, both of which were commercial.

But there are signs that development interest in Springdale may be picking up. In addition to Freedman's application, the land-use bureau recently received a proposal for a mixed-use development with 13 residential units at the former Fireside restaurant at Hope and Fahey streets.

Monday night's hearing was sparsely attended, with only one resident arguing against Freedman's project as too intense for a neighborhood that has been characterized as a "village."

"A village experience is not living in tiny studios," said Beth Conrad, who lives on Weed Hill Avenue. "These are tiny studios."

After the hearing, John Leydon, the attorney representing Freedman, said the goal of the Village Commercial District is to increase vibrancy in a neighborhood.

"I believe this project will support that goal," he said, adding, "We're fortunate that we have experiences with three similar projects."